New Project: Carole's Heart

One of the highlights of my time at the Victorian Stitchery Retreat in Wichita last fall was spending time with Carole Samples.  Most crazy quilters are familiar with her book, Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches, one of the "bibles" of our craft. Far fewer of us have had the privilege of hearing her lecture, taking a class from her, or just hanging out enjoying her delightful conversation.  I felt so lucky!

My friend Val Bothell, organizer of the retreat, and I were inspired by her block designs in a challenge we issued to each other: let's see how original our individual "takes" on working up the same block can be!  Crazy quilting obviously has room for many, many interpretations....You can fview Val's take on Carole's heart on her blog here.

As always, I LOVE pulling fabrics at the beginning of a new piecing project.

I decided I couldn't do just one heart, you see, so have had a blast over the last week making several of them:

They all will finish out at about 14" X 14 1/2".
I still very much have plaid on the brain. There are the blue ones...

....and the green ones....

...and the brown ones...

...and one white one.

Altogether up on the design wall they look like this:

I definitely scratched my piecing itch this week...now for the fun of embellishment!

"Pretty Crazy Green 9 Patch"

I had such a great time demo-ing my "Pretty Crazy" pattern at Fabric Depot last Saturday!  Lots of really nice people came by, and it was so easy to show them how the pattern works.  Response was good!

Marge, one of the ladies who works there, liked the block I was using to demonstrate with, all in green.  It got me thinking after I got home that I really should make another one of these while I'm in the mood, especially after I sent off the Renaissance 9 Patch and miss it!

And just to show how fast this can come together, I will honestly state that I did the fabric lay-out in one 4 hour session, and the trim/pinning in a 6 hour session.  Fast and furiously fun....the sewing will be another 3 hours or so, finishing maybe 1 1/2, so the whole thing should come in at 15 hours.  Not bad...  ;-)

Yes, I used the old blogger's trick of standing on a step stool to get this overhead shot.  It's a nice sturdy stool.

The fun part of this process is that the whole thing is laid out at once, so you can keep the composition balanced as you go.  The fabric pieces are just laying on top of the foundation muslin squares at this point. So much for phase one...

When it was time to add the trim, I found that once in awhile I had to iron under the edge of the patch before laying the trim over it--this was when I was using lace, or the trim was really narrow.

I wanted those edges to stay flat once I pressed them, so I painted them first with a little starch/water solution.  It worked wonders.

Here is one of the 9 blocks, all pinned up.  There are lots of different manufacturers represented here, including Simplicity's ombre flower trim, and Mokuba's ready made black passementerie.

And another block....

Little bits from here and there in my stash all came out to play, including some old printed quilter's cottons that I've had for well over a decade...

The overall view is now at this stage...

I might have to tweak it so there is one more largish pink shape in the upper right (reduced views make problem areas pop right out).  Click on it to see it better....and come on back next week when it will be done!

"Rainy Spring"...Working in Sections

The blocks are now sewn into nine sections.  When I want to add a seam treatment, I just take one section down from the design wall to work on it.

This has been working out really well.

From the back, a section looks like this. 
Each block has been interfaced, trimmed, and the edges zigzagged so this is all very stable for working.  Notice the seams are all pressed open.  Less bulk this way.

I've been having fun with it!  Lots of sequins....This is the upper left section.  I finished the edges of the fans pretty simply, the same in all four corners of the quilt.

A close up of one of the seams...


I've been combining machine and hand embroidery, and am writing about that for CQMagOnline's next issue.

Here is the overall view as of today...

You can see the sections.  I get a feel for the quilt overall as I work, but only have to deal with 4, 6, or 9 blocks at a time.  It's a good system.

I went to the bead store yesterday and got a bunch of crystal beads....I keep thinking about raindrops....

Christmas Fan 2....Finished

What? Another fan?
Oh yes, I am definitely in "playing hooky" mode at this point, leaving the serious work of the Cottage CQ for more holiday fun. And we all know I have a thing for fans...

So here is the second one, for my sweet and elegant cousin. I tried to make this according to her taste, using my sparkly Kreinik threads.
The lace is handmade by the Lace Ladies in Southern India. You can read their inspirational story here. I felt it to be a huge privilege to work with this exquisite lace.

Here is a closer view. Click on the picture for an even better look. Made by hand!!!! I find this astonishing and humbling in the extreme.

Once this fan was completed I started thinking about another favorite cousin. She lives on a ranch in New Mexico in an adobe house that's a few hundred years old...so the colors need to be vintage Old West....turkey red and olive green would suit her. So I pieced the fan last night.

Not having light coming through the window for my usual impromptu lightbox (for getting the curve symmetrical), I had a mini-flash of inspiration.

I pulled up a "new document" on Word to get that white on my laptop screen, and I was good to go! Not pressing hard on the screen, of course....this worked like a charm for tracing one side of the curve off of the other side.

Here's the foundation muslin all marked and ready to piece.

Now I'm ready to stitch on it. Hooky is a good thing!

Christmas Fan....Finished

Whew!
That stitching on the fan ornament sure felt good.

This measures 6" high and 8" wide.
I tried out my new Pfaff machine's decorative stitching on the red ribbon....kinda neat!
It's for a friend of mine....

Now it is back to the Cottage CQ, as I am all refreshed by this old timey stitching.....

***Edit***
In answer to a commentor's question, I did finish this "envelope" style, leaving a gap in the curve. For my second fan I decided to have the gap along the side instead, as the straight edge is easier to turn and whipstitch closed by hand.

Christmas Fan

Right before I left for California (back safe and sound last night) I pieced up a Christmas fan to work on while I was away.
I got absolutely nothing done on it, not one stitch! But I did have a wonderful Thanksgiving reunion with my DH's family.

After all my experimenting on the Cottage CQ, I've been feeling the need to do some traditional crazy quilting as a little mental relief. I have a collection of vintage CQ digital images to draw from, and I especially liked this fan.
So I think I'll whip this out before going back to the beach scene...it needs a little rest anyways.

When quilts tell you to give them a break, it is worth listening to them.....!

CQ Landscape...A Warm-Up

For the past year I have been mulling over how make a crazy landscape quilt.....I'm finally starting to get a handle on it so have been playing with a practice piece to get things rolling.
Newer readers might like to check out these pages of my website. They show a good sample of my landscape "phase" as a sane quilter.

I know that I definitely want to combine printed photos on fabric with more traditional CQ type fancy fabrics, soI dug into a small pile of "reject" prints that went into the mix below. This little piece is about the fall trees...and the wind that gets the leaves blowing across the sky....

This measures 16" X 24".
"Om Tat Sat" is Sanskrit and can be translated as "Supreme Absolute Truth". I always feel God in the sky. There is a wonderful saying, "I drink Thy power from the mighty cup of the wind..."
It's been really windy around here, too!

Those brown limbs are a fabulous chenille yarn that has been felted in place with the Babylock Embellisher. Thanks, Leonie, for that great yarn!

Then I used the embellisher to "felt applique" the leaves down...except for the shiny ones. Those are holographic lame that have been fused in place.
I've embroidered some finer detail on some of the branches, and am trying out some simple stitches along the seams in the bottom right section.
I just want to see how to combine these different elements.

Oh, and just for fun, here is basically the same quilt from 1997...

It is 16" X 19".
I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same...

Spring CQ...Center Block Attached

My brother is here on a visit, so I haven't had a whole lot of time for sewing (we've been doing fun touristy stuff around Portland)...but I did get the center block sewn on.
It doesn't look perfectly symmetrical that way it should...but that's what dangling leaves and tendrils over the sides are for!

Here is a detail shot of the edge of the center block.

And here is the whole block in place.

While Matt and I were out and about visiting some area nurseries, I came upon this rose....

It is called "Dove"...and I am going to see if I can make something inspired by it for the center. Isn't it beautiful?

...and here are me and Matt regressing at Multnomah Falls....

Spring CQ...Piecing Completed

Thank you so much for your kind birthday wishes!!! ;-)

So far I have loved every minute of working on this quilt...except these picky little corner arcs I had to applique on....

I knew there was no way I could piece this accurately.

Here is the quilt, all assembled. I love that I will have the freedom to go "from block to block" with my embellishments, and it's great to be able to work with everything all squared up from the beginning.

Now you can see where those little appliqued arcs are.

As to what is going to go in the center...I had an idea, and actually used my kindergarten-level Photoshop skills to test it out.

This is a print by Joseph Nigg (1782-1863) that I grew up with...I've always loved it. How would this work as the center of the quilt? I could print it on fabric.....

Not really that great, I decided. But the idea of a luscious floral arrangement in the center is worth pursuing...Maybe if I made my own out of real flowers.....and carried them around the green arcs too....I will just have to wait until they start blooming in the garden to find out....

Spring CQ...Green Corners Begun

This has been so interesting of a process to me. It is rare that a new large-scale project unrolls so smoothly! This has just been peaceful, methodical, and easy...
The green arcs went on in a mid-value range...the four corners will be darker green.
All of this of course is background...the embellishments will be much more saturated and vivid in the foreground....
Piecing the greens was a great way to spend my birthday, in between phone calls and emails from loving family members....God is very good to me, and I am grateful.

Spring CQ....more piecing progress

I am really enjoying working with these colors!
On my work table I've got a big yummy pile of green fabrics that are going to fill in the arcs in the four corners...merging fairly seamlessly with the purple, I hope, with the same kind of curved, semi-random piecing. ..
The center will come last, as per usual...determined by the direction the quilt has taken.

I decided to join all the blocks together from the beginning, rather than embroider them separately. I definitely want this quilt to evolve as a whole, not in units. It will be a little more cumbersome to work on but not too bad....certainly not as much of a wrestling match as the quilt shown below was...that one was 5' X 10'!

This is my friend KT's quilt, shown hanging in her bedroom. The blocks were worked on separately, but then a lot more embellishment was added after the quilt top was assembled. That was a workout.

In joining the central 9 blocks, I did piece in the blank muslin square just to keep everything stable and squared up. After the corners are pieced, I'll join them all up.

Spring CQ....further piecing progress

"Spring CQ" is a good enough working title!
Judy S. asked if I compose all my crazy quilts this way, and the answer is yes. I put all my muslin foundation blocks up on the design wall, then take them down and piece them one by one. Sometimes I will pin a partially pieced block back up on the wall to see what it "needs" next.

Here is one block in four stages of piecing...I'm not showing step by step, just the general idea of how it goes:

This block got started in the lower left corner, and I built it out from there.
Next, I sewed chunks together....

Here are the two main chunks, ready to get pieced to the foundation...

And here is the finished block.
Many of these fabrics are from a tie manufacturer in San Rafael, California. They had a storefront and a bunch of us at the Point Bonita quilt conference last January took a field trip to buy some of their fabric samples. I stuffed a grocery bag tightly with nicely sized silk squares and paid a whopping $5.00 for it. Such a deal!

Here is the quilt so far.
I have several ideas for what will go in the center, but it seems I alway decide that last when making a crazy quilt.
Weird, huh?

Crazy Quilt Frame for Embroidered Home Portrait

This was almost sinfully easy.
When I read an account of Marsha Michler's "topstich method" of creating crazy quilt blocks, I knew this was the technique for me for this framing of my embroidered scene.
I love curves and usually piece them...but this time I needed total control of my lay-out, making sure my scene was oriented perfectly and that my block would turn out exactly the shape I need for this quilt. Plus, the pieces are smaller than I ususally work with.
So this is what I did:

I just took it slowly, ironing and pinning--fine silk pins a preference--measuring with the ruler, rearranging...the block will be on point.

Sewing it down with a straight stitch and clear thread was a breeze, I am not kidding you.

The dimensions of this quilt when finished will be 15" X 15". (Remember, this is an entry for the Alliance for American Quilts annual contest. It is also technically a donation quilt as all the contest entries will be auctioned off to benefit the Alliance.) This leaves me those nice four corner triangles to play with...I wonder what will go in there? Fans, just maybe? I have some ideas, but first I will have a go at all those seams in the frame...and that will give me something to do during this HEINOUS weather.

Would you look at that pathetic cherry tree, all in bloom and getting hailed on this morning? It's a giant standard cherry and feeds a ton of birds later in the spring...hang in there, cherry!

Take It Further, April...Day 1

The Take it Further challenge for April, as described by Sharon Boggon here, asks us how we view change...Sharon also gave us a color palette to work that, like last month's, reflects the coming of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. (Hey Sharon, it is spring up here, you know!...)

I decided to address the change that is most important in my life these days....that of the attaining of adulthood in my children. This year Max is 21 and Chad is 18, two landmark ages in becoming adult.

No one tells us at the beginning of the experience of motherhood that we will have to stay very light on our feet during the transition period of "letting go". While we will always be moms and always give unconditional love to our children, we sure have to change the way we behave towards them, and what we expect from them too, as they become independent. We have to relearn some of our own independence as well...I am no longer tied to my kids in the same way anymore. This was hard for me to understand at first, but I am making great progress, especially because my guys are doing so well in their lives and are both genuinely happy. ( A special thank you to Esther on that score!)

So, my little piece reflects all this musing....

I started by felting some hand-dyed soy silk onto a couple of vintage linen napkins that Pam Kellogg so generously shared with me.

The boys at ages 4 and 1.....

...and today.
It is an extremely sentimental setting for them, but this is as much about me as about them....call it their feminine mom showcasing them in her love!

I kept to the palette pretty well except for using blue instead of green. It reflects their masculinity well.
I will square this all up when the stitching is done... for today, I will address those fan blades with some blue embroidery!
The square is 12" X 12"...on point it is 17" X 17".
*************

A few notes to commenters....Cherry asked for more info about finishing a piece with foam core. The next issue of CQMagOnline will have a how-to article by me on that subject, so please look for it online at the end of this month.

Kim asked what I do with all the things I make....I am thinking about setting up an Etsy shop to give some of them new homes. Stay tuned.....